Having worked tirelessly at the Bank of England for 32 years with the sole ambition of attaining the top job, Paul Tucker will effectively have his first interview for the governor's role tomorrow when he becomes the latest guest of the Treasury select committee.

The deputy governor remains the bookies' favourite (which is usually a curse) to land his dream job, but his odds should have lengthened after last week's Libor revelations – particularly the timely discovery of a note by former Barclays boss Bob Diamond that appeared to suggest the high street bank rigged rates following a nod from Tucker.

The deputy governor will, of course, be asked if Diamond's recollections are as accurate as his colleagues' Libor submissions, as well as which senior figures in Whitehall the Bank talked to.

If he provides a decent explanation, he may still be a contender for the top job, despite a career that has suffered occasional sniping from impertinent associates. Most famously, an oft-repeated jibe from 1991 related how Tucker brought home a carpet from a foreign trip that introduced thousands of moths to his home and infested the designer wardrobe of his flatmate. Apparently, Tucker was less than keen to provide replacements, causing her to retaliate: she told the world that the moths escaped from his wallet.

A question of balance

At the same time as Tucker fields questions from members of parliament on the Treasury select committee, Sir Mike Rake, Barclays' deputy chairman (and chairman of BT and easyJet), will be up in front of the House of Lords' EU subcommittee.

It will be asking a range of witnesses whether there's a business case for increasing gender diversity in the boardroom – as well as querying why current representation of women on boards is so low, and the likelihood of the UK reaching the 40% target set by the European commission without quotas. Just for the record, female representation on the UK boards that Rake sits on are as follows. Barclays: two out of 11. BT: three out of 11. EasyJet: two out of 10 (although the latter figure could change swiftly if the airline's founder, Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, gets his way and ousts the chairman).

No doubt Rake will be a valuable witness, although no one yet seems to have boiled the issue down to the cutting analysis of one top businesswoman. As she says, there's only one test for sexual equality in City recruitment: that's when a woman who is clearly incompetent lands a top job.

Deripaska's court date

It has been a couple of months since the name of Russian metals tycoon Oleg Deripaska has echoed around London's commercial courts – but the oligarch has always been a selfless soul who refuses to frustrate his fans on the Strand for long.

After a legal preamble that's already run as long as Jarndyce v Jarndyce, the pal of Lord Mandelson and financier Nat Rothschild will this week begin to defend himself in the opening of his legal spat with Michael Cherney, who will accuse Deripaska of failing to honour a promise to hand him $1.2bn of shares in the aluminium giant Rusal.

In his defence, Deripaska will say the pair never had a business partnership (despite gifting $250m to his rival) and allege that their relationship was merely that hackneyed one of a legitimate businessman being extorted by a crime boss.

But why does London get to host this prestigious world-class event? Cherney fears he might not get a fair trial or be arrested on "trumped-up charges" orchestrated by Deripaska if he returns to Russia – where, he's also argued, he faces the risk of assassination.

Not that he's planning a trip to the UK, either. Cherney will give his evidence via video link (probably in the autumn), as an appearance in London might attract the attentions of Interpol.